Emile Frank Verlaine Dechaineux, DSC (3 October 1902 – 21 October 1944) was an Australian mariner who reached the rank of Captain in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. He was killed by a Japanese aircraft in what is believed to have been the first ever kamikaze attack, in the lead-up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Biography Dechaineux was born in Launceston, Tasmania, to a Belgian-born father, Florent Dechaineux, and an Australian mother. He entered the Royal Australian Naval College, Jervis Bay at the age of 14, graduated three years later, and was promoted to Midshipman in 1920. In the first half of the 20th century, the RAN worked very closely with the British Royal Navy (RN), frequently exchanging personnel. Dechaineux spent much of the 1920s training with the RN as a torpedo officer and naval air observer. In September 1932 Dechaineux achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1935 he was appointed Squadron Torpedo Officer, on board HMAS Canberra. The following year he married Mary Harbottle. In 1937, Dechaineux returned to the UK to attend the Royal Naval College and in June he was promoted to Commander. At the outbreak of World War II, Dechaineux was attached to the RN Tactical and Minesweeping divisions until April 1940. Then, as the commander of the destroyer HMS Vivacious, he made five trips to assist Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk. On 26 May the ship was allocated to Dynamo. At first, deployed from Dover, on 27 May the ship patrolled the beaches off Dunkirk, providing general anti-aircraft cover and protecting against fast E-boat attacks while scores of vessels crossed the mercifully semi-calm Channel in evacuation. The pleasure steamer Mona’s Isle, for example, now fitted out as an armed boarding vessel, was amongst the many. But her machineguns were no match for the attacking aircraft and occasional ship of the enemy: she was bombed as she reached the open sea outside Britain, and 40 on board were killed. This was the new and dangerous world of Dechaineux in action for the first time. The next day the destroyer made two trips from Dunkirk to Dover, bringing out 326 men in the first trip and 359 in the second; one can only imagine the crowding of every interior space and her weather deck by so many men. Two days later another 537 men were safely landed in the British port.